Rich Rod on ESPNU "The Experts"

Rich was on “The Experts” on ESPNU just a bit ago, here’s some relevent bits (nothing groundbreaking, but still worth it)

Laughed at the intro from generic sports show guy asking how the statue of Denard was coming along in front of the Big House: “Yeah…Let’s slow down a little bit...It’s only been two games. I know he had a little Heisman pose or something but that was in the course of a game, it wasn’t anything that was staged.”

Asked if Denard brings an added element that he hasn’t had yet in his coaching career. He replies with the list of quarterbacks he’s had in the past shooting down the leading question then goes on: “we try to fit our offense or play calling around the skill set of our quarterbacks and we’re fortunate to have 3 quarterbacks that have a pretty unique skill set. Denard is certainly the fastest and he’s got the ability to take the ball the distance every play. He’s performed pretty well as a first time starter, and I think the best is still yet to come. I’m excited to see what happens in the future.”

On the standard Denard getting pounded/28 carriers/injury question: “We’ll we don’t want him to have to get pounded 28 times. But you’ve seen it across the country that sometimes the drop back guys are getting injured just as much, just like in our last game against Notre Dame. If Denard is gonna get hit, I’d rather he get hit by a glancing blow by a defensive back than by one of the big guys in the front seven. There’s no question we hope to be able to spread things out a little bit more. We always said the quarterback in our offense is like a point guard that can shoot the 3. He’s been shooting a lot of 3’s, hopefully in the future he’ll distribute it a little more.”

On the QB rotation for the upcoming games: “…2 other quarterbacks I wanted to play more, I think we can win with both of them but Denard is playing so well and the way the game was flowing we weren’t able to put them in as much. I think going forward we’re gonna need to, we’re gonna need guys, whether Denard gets tired or what have you we’re gonna have to have those other guys ready to play. But I think the competition between all three of them has elevated our entire program, not just our offense.”

I hate that show because all of the "experts" are a joke, but having RR on just gives us some more positive MSM that can only help going forward with recruiting and national perception. Thanks for the post.

I believe they also claimed that there are no other impressive players on the offense... there's no "Robin" on the offense. The Running backs are not impressive, and Roy Roundtree is okay, but nothing spectacular.

While a casual observer might say this is true, I find that a bit annoying. Perhaps I'm too entrenched in Michigan football, but I think our Offensive players have played pretty solid and a few have been exceptional at things stats conventional don't highlight. Sure, the RBs need to step it up in terms of rushing yards, but I expect experts to have a keener eye.

Maybe no other skill position player has stood out, but our offensive line is the main reason for Denard's success. And with two defenses being completely unable to stop Denard, why would we change the gameplan? Just to prove we have other dangerous skill players?

It is my "expert opinion" that we will utilize other skill players when someone can stop Denard. Let's say that MSU (who is most likely already practicing for us) figures out a way to limit Denard's running game, well that will open up the passing game and some draws and such for the RBs to step up. Yes, no other skill player has stepped up yet as far as yardage (blocking has been pretty damn good from them), but they haven't needed to. WHEN someone limits Denard, then we'll find out what kind of other threats we have.

There is a reason DR got so many touches in the ND game. And that is because Kelly wanted to force DR to take the ball as many times as he could, rather than the running backs. I felt after the game when he said something about how many carries can Denard take, that he had set up a game plan to try to beat up Denard and was pissed that it didn't work. I wonder if other coaches will take this approach, or try to force it to the running backs, to limit how much of a gain we might get.

To me, it doesn't matter if he has one go to guy. In our offense, we don't need one go to guy. We need everyone to do their part, whether it be line blocking, downfield blocking, catching, running the right routes, it doesn't matter. They are all inmportant and everyone on the team understands this. This is why we were successful. On one of th BTN shows, they did a breakdown of his 87 yrd run and gave credit to the nasty downfield blocking. I really love this team, and have fun watching them do what they do.

Thats ok let the focus stay on the offense,it is our strength and the more focus on that side of the ball the less time they will gameplan for our (poor) defense. We are doing much better at shutting people down for long periods, but still have the few times the hips dont get turned quick enough and they get behind us. Once we stop that mistake and force people to make more plays in front of us we will be in as good of shape as we can be this year. More recruits next year will bring more depth and more speed and we will see another jump in ability bringing us up to the table for conversation with regard to the Big10 championship, faith in the team and staff. Never will we relinquish our title as the Number 1 college football program of all time. GO BLUE

But you’ve seen it across the country that sometimes the drop back guys are getting injured just as much, just like in our last game against Notre Dame. If Denard is gonna get hit, I’d rather he get hit by a glancing blow by a defensive back than by one of the big guys in the front seven.

Have you noticed that sometimes Denard tends to lower his shoulder and attempt to run over defenders instead of trying to avoid contact? It is one of those things that when he does it I hold my breath and then when it becomes an afterthought, it is awesome.

when he knows he's going to get hit. He knows how to run the ball properly. When he goes in to a certain tackle, he seems to know when to tense up, and more importantly, how and where. He's not going to stand straight up and let a linebacker take a kidney shot, he's going to angle his body so the blow is only glancing. I will start to get nervous if he ever tries to Mark Ingram / Brandon Minor truck-stick a defender, but otherwise we know all well how shifty he is and how he can make a guy miss in space

If comparing to a running back workload, go-to tailbacks typically get 20 - 30 carries a game in college...6' 0", 195 isn't a small tailback...I liked Coach R's comment at the presser about nobody being concerned about Barry Sanders getting the ball 27 times a game..

I realize that at some point Denard and the Michigan offense will need to adjust and feature other weapons because defenses are putting all of their efforts into stopping Denard. No one has been able to do so yet. Until someone can stop us, keep it going. Force defenses to commit ridiculous resources to stopping Denard's rushing. At that point we change the game plan.